


Dance of The Desert Sun

by wordscavenger



Series: Forget Not The Legacy [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Finn Knows Whats Up, M/M, Original Character(s), Pre-Slash, Protective Poe Dameron, Rey is a badass, Stormpilot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 10:59:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5964802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordscavenger/pseuds/wordscavenger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Do not forget what I have done, to be the person that I had to become."</p><p>Or,</p><p>Poe is still learning things about Rey; such as she is perfectly capable of handling herself, thank you. Luckily, Finn knows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dance of The Desert Sun

“Why do you keep looking at the door?”

Poe shifts in his seat to regard Finn's question with a frown. The ex-Stormtrooper sitting next to him was currently enthralled with his mix of cooked muja fruit and quinto grains. Getting used to real food instead of the calorie focused protein and nutrient infused portions he grew up with in the Order was an everyday adventure. With a spoon, Poe watches as Finn scoops some food up and then slowly pour it back to its container, its unique consistency of lumpy and smooth making Finn cautious.

“Stop playing with your food.” Poe mutters, glancing around the Mess hall with a frown. “If Bartha sees you messing with your breakfast she’s going to think you don’t like it and trust me, you don’t want to know what she’ll do if that happens.”

Finn rolls his eyes and gives a small snort before he turns towards the large blue woman with long horns coming out of her cheeks currently handing out food to other resistance members behind the bar. He sits up straighter when she sees him and he begins waving at her. She makes a trilling sound and waves back, blowing him a little kiss.

“Please.” Finn says with a smile as he turned back to Poe, “I’m a Resistance hero. She loves me. Everyone loves me.” He looks down at his food, “This however, I’m not sure I love.”

Poe laughs and shake his head. He was about to caution the man not to get too cocky with all this attention, it never lasts _trust_ him, when he hears some laughter from a few tables over. He turns to regard six men from what was nicknamed the “grunt squadron” since their duties often involved miscellaneous hard work all around the base. Unspecified but needed, they were their own group without a technical name. He knew most of them as some of their responsibilities involved working in the hanger, but he was focused specifically on two of them.

“Problem?” Finn asks, following the direction Poe was looking.

Sighing Poe turns back to Finn. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to explain what he knew. He had overheard those two men in the hanger the day before talking about Rey in a manner that didn’t sit well with him. It wasn’t enough for him to report them and have any real action be taken, but he’d been around long enough to know that situations like that could escalate if not carefully kept in control. He knew Finn was very protective of Rey, and wasn’t sure how the man would take hearing what those men had said.

“Stop looking at me like that and just tell me.” Finn suddenly exclaims, dropping his spoon with a sigh before folding his arms.

“Like what?” Poe is surprised by his sudden shift in attitude.

Finn rolls his eyes before reaching out to grab his drink to take sip. “Like I’m going to break whenever anything gets difficult. I’ve been out of medical for almost three weeks and off bed rest for four days.” He pulls back from the cup with a frown and gives a little cough, “Trust me. That’s like a vacation in First Order medical practices.”

Swallowing down the desire to reach over and wrap his arm around his friend, Poe admits, “You’re right.” Instead he clenches his fists helplessly and hopes he doesn't notice, “You’re right I’m sorry.” He knew he should trust Finn more. It had nothing to do with his past. The man was more than capable of handling almost anything considering everything they had been through together. Just, he couldn’t help it. Seeing Finn injured after the Starkiller battle struck a protective nerve in him that he couldn’t shake. Even now, hearing how the First Order would have treated the kind of injury Finn sustained made his desire to fight them even stronger. At one point he would need to consider what that means to him, but for now he just wanted to focus on what might be happening soon.

“Don’t be sorry. Just tell me what’s up?” Finn says, shooting Poe his melt you in your flightsuite smile.

Poe had to blink a couple of times to focus before he nearly answered, but he then heard the doors to the Mess hall open and he looked up to see Rey walk into the room with BB-8 rolling beside her. She was laughing at whatever the little droid beeped at her before answering back enthusiastically.

“Oh good.” Finn says glancing up at the door. “Rey’s here.” He pushes his bowl towards the empty seat across from him, “Maybe she can tell me if this food is off or if it’s just me.” He glanced down now at what he was told was a meiloorun melon and started the cautious task of peeling its spiky skin for the first time.

“Probably just you buddy. If it didn’t grow from powder it never tastes right to you.” Poe answers with a small grin and a little jab with the elbow, but didn’t take his eyes off the young woman and droid heading towards their table.

He stiffens when the two men he had been eyeing before stand and start heading towards Rey.

“Crap.” Poe mutters, worried for his new friend. He liked Rey, a lot. Even though she was around for only a short time before leaving to find Luke Skywalker, when she returned a few months later with the exiled Jedi in tow Finn had insisted they meet, positive that they would get along. And though Poe likes to consider himself pretty easy going and could get friendly with just about anyone (minus First Order sympathizers of course) he really did like Rey. She was incredibly smart and resourceful, and how could he not love a natural born pilot?

But she grew up on an isolated desert planet, where unlike Finn’s military focused past, she had never learned to fight like him. He’d heard about her facing Kylo Ren alone, so he knew she could take care of herself with the help of the Force, but she shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of treatment on her own in a place Poe was hoping she could one day call home.

So like hell he was going to let a couple of grunts push around the new girl just because they thought she was an easy target. This was his base, and if anyone wanted to start trouble with his new friends they were definitely going to have to go through _him_.

With those thoughts fueling his desire to help her, he starts to rise when the two men walk in front of Rey, stopping her in surprise. He was just about to step away from the table when he felt a hand on his thigh pushing him back down.

Beside him, Finn was looking at his drink in his other hand with a frown before saying, “She’s got this.”

Poe wasn’t sure that Finn had even looked up from his food again since Rey entered the room. He sat back down slowly, fully aware that Finn’s hand hadn’t left his thigh. His mind was blank other than the sharp realization that Finn had initiated contact, which rarely happened, and wasn’t stopping it.

Again, thoughts for another time.

“I said do not touch me.” Poe turns back to see one of the men’s hand get thrown off of Rey’s shoulder. BB-8 beeps angrily at them but no one paid attention to the little droid.

“Are you sure-“ Poe began but Finn interrupts him with a “Yep.” Before reaching over and grabbing Poe’s drink, taking a small sip. “Now this? This I like.”

Poe had to blink a couple of times because Finn taking his food and touching him? It was all a bit much.

The sudden loud THUD in the Mess hall silences the near-deafening chatter that echoed through the room. All eyes were now turned to Rey, who had decked one of the grunts in the chin, sending him sprawled out onto a table where he proceeded to knock over cups and plates before falling onto the floor, nearly missing BB-8 who was rolling around them worriedly.

“BB-8 come here!” Poe says to his little droid, suddenly realizing it might get injured in the scuffle. It hesitates for a moment to look at Rey, but when she gracefully ducked the clumsy fist swinging at her from the other man, BB-8 knew it wasn’t needed and sped towards its master with a loud beep. It rolls behind Poe’s chair and peeks out behind his leg, beeping encouragingly at his friend.

Poe was, for lack of any other elegant word that he could think of, flabbergasted. Poe couldn’t believe what he was seeing as he watched the fallen man stand back up, grab Rey from behind, and then proceed to get his nose broken when she jumped up, smacked her head back and then kicked the other man in the chest, causing both men to fall down in pain as she landed easily on her feet with one hand on the ground.

He was so caught up with the scene he almost missed Finn casually stealing some jerky from his plate.

Rey watches the men writhing in pain on the floor for a moment before she stands. “I don’t know how you normally treat your people on your base, but back on Jakku, this is how I’ve dealt with men who refuse to acknowledge how a person deserves to be spoken too. Don’t make me repeat this lesson.”

As she starts walking over to their table, the Mess hall suddenly erupts in cheers and clapping, mostly from the females in the crowd, causing Rey to stumble a bit in surprise and turn towards the applause. She offers a nervous smile before turning back and plopping into her seat across from the other men. She didn’t even turn around to watch the injured men stumble out of the room, the rest of their group following with loud jeers and mocking belittling names at them.

“I guess those two aren’t very popular around here.” She begins, trying not to stare at Poe’s mouth forming a perfect ‘O’ of surprise.

“Rey, try this.” Finn says handing her the half-eaten jerky commandeered off of Poe’s plate, “Does this taste like Nerf to you? I’ve never had Nerf but I’ve heard it’s saltier than this.”

She takes the jerky out of his hands and bites down, makes an unpleasant face, then eats the whole thing. Poe doesn’t think he’s ever seen Rey turn down food or please a plate not empty. Once he saw her lick her plate and didn’t have the heart to comment on it.

“Definitely not Nerf.” She answers, then begins devouring the bow of food in front of her.

“How-“ Poe begins but Finn’s hand, still resting there on his thigh, squeezes a gentle signal not to finish his question. Instead, Poe shoots Finn a glance of confusion. Finn just smiles back at him and squeezes his thigh once more. Knowing he wasn’t about to get any kind of answer, he turns back to Rey to swallow his words and instead says, “Good job with uh them Rey. Didn’t know you could kick ass like that, but it’s good to know in case I beat you in the next pod racing simulation. I can sometimes be a pompous winner.” Out of the corner of his eye he sees Finn’s smile grow wider and knows he said the right thing.

Rey looks up with a smile as well before she laughs, answering with her mouth full. “Like you could beat me in a pod race, simulation or not.”

“Careful Rey. Those sound like fighting words if I’ve ever heard them.” Finn jokes as he shifts, finally taking his hand off Poe’s thigh. Poe swallows down the sudden sharp feeling of _loss_ and quietly allows the conversation between the two to continue on around him.

After a minute he glances down at BB-8. “Did you know-?” He begins quietly, casting a quick nod towards the girl who was oblivious to his conversation as she stole Poe’s drink who Finn had stolen from Poe first, much to Finn’s annoyance as he had been trying to get her to drink his original drink.

BB-8 answers with a small narrative about being on Jakku and how two scavengers attempted to capture him, but Rey fought them off moments before Finn came upon them. He didn’t know how she learned to fight, but she didn’t like discussing her past, so it and Friend-Finn didn’t inquire. Also after they met they were soon being chased by the First Order, so there wasn’t much time for extensive human conversation, also known as 'chit-chat'.

Poe nods and looks back towards his friends, currently bickering over who gets the last of Poe’s jerky, not that Poe ever mentioned he was planning on giving it to them, and regards them quietly. No wonder Finn had trust in Rey to handle herself; he already knew what she was capable of. The two might look like a couple of kids, but not for the first time Poe wonders just what he has gotten himself into by being friends with them.    

“Alright.” Rey exclaims suddenly though gritted teeth before she stands, glaring at Finn “Pod racing, simulation Endor, Level 8. If you lose I get the jerky and I get to use you as a force focused sparring partner for a week.” She can’t help but smirk and Poe wonders if she knows Finn had been planning to egg her on for a Pod sim battle since he first sat down at Mess this morning.

Finn stands as well. “If I win I get your jerky for a week and you have to teach me how to fly the Falcon.”

Rey hesitates for only a moment, but Finn knows her too well because she then holds out her hand. “Deal.”

They shake and begin immediately gathering their food. Finn gabs Poe’s half eaten plate and says, “C’mon.”

“What right now?”    

“Yes now. Let’s go.” Finn gives him a look, like why he would ever want to be anywhere else, and continues, “Unless-Is there somewhere else you need-“

“No.” Poe cuts in quickly, staring at Finn like he couldn’t believe he would ask that question; because touching oh so gently on thoughts that he will totally analyze later, he swears, Finn has the kind of eyes you don’t say no too. Ever.

“Good. C’mon BB.” Finn says to the little droid before walking away. As Poe watches him leave BB-8 beeps at him before rolling after Finn and mutters quietly, “No I am not whipped.”

And just because he grabs some more jerky and a bottle of the drink Finn likes on his way out of Mess a few moments later, doesn’t prove that either.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me on Tumblr at http://wordscavenger.tumblr.com once I, you know, actually do stuff on it.


End file.
